| Producer | Castorani |
| Country | Italy |
| Region | Abruzzo |
| Varietal | Montepulciano |
| Vintage | 2017 |
| Sku | 01216 |
| Size | 750ml |
| ABV | 13.00% |
Lower ABV There’s a reason Montepulciano is Italy’s second-most planted grape (after Sangiovese and just ahead of Barbera). It makes a terrific all-purpose red, a wine showing plenty of dark plum and black cherry fruit with accents of chocolate and herb that’s fun to drink solo and goes with all kinds of food. And the best place to grow Montepulciano is where this fine value example comes from: the hills just inland from the Adriatic Sea coastline in Italy’s Abruzzo region. The hillside location gives the grapes cooling breezes to balance daytime heat and sun while growing up trellises (called “pergola”) keeps the grapes shaded and air flowing, limiting the need for rot-fighting sprays.
Jarno Trulli and some friends took over the old, somewhat decrepit, Castorani estate in 1999 and have been making straight-ahead, delicious, Montepulciano ever since. Here the hand-harvested fruit is picked with great freshness (just 13.0% alcohol) and fermented and aged gently in concrete tank. The wine shows big aromas and flavors of dark red and black fruits with a bit of dark chocolate on the back and just a hint of wild herb for complexity. Despite the lower alcohol, the wine feels round and velvety in your mouth and finishes with a just-right squirt of freshening cherry acidity and soft, gentle, grip of fine tannins. Great pizza/pasta red, ready to shine with rich beef or roasted vegitable dishes, and sure to please as a great all-purpose House Red.
“Lots of clean, fresh black-fruit character to this. Medium-bodied with slightly chewy tannins but the fruit persists through the finish. Drink or hold.”
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